Pair Face Trial in Robberies at 7 Houses

Two men were ordered to stand trial Thursday on 33 counts including kidnaping for robbery, residential robbery, burglary and rape stemming from a string of early morning attacks on Valley residents in April.

James Crooms, 21, of Pacoima and Robert Smith, 23, of Panorama City pleaded not guilty to the charges and are being held without bail, Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said.

The two broke into seven houses between April 6 and April 16, sometimes carrying shotguns and wearing stocking caps or bandanas to hide their faces, Richman said.

During each of the break-ins, they ordered residents into the living rooms and covered them with blankets while they burglarized the home, he said. Some residents were taken at gunpoint to their automatic teller machines and ordered to withdraw cash, Richman said.

In one instance, the men took three residents of one Granada Hills home to their automatic teller machines, Richman said. They then made the residents knock on the door of a neighbor’s home “under the ruse that there was an emergency.”

“When they let them in, they robbed the neighbors too,” he said.

A 15-year-old girl was raped during a break-in at a house in Panorama City, Richman said.

Crooms and Smith were arrested when they were seen entering an unoccupied house in the North Hollywood area April 16, Richman said.

The two escaped on foot but were arrested when they returned to the house in a taxi cab to retrieve a truck that was parked nearby, he said.

They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on just one of the kidnaping for robbery charges.